As society progresses, and production of more and more sophisticated products increases dramatically with time, it is inevitable that more and more unwanted and hazardous by-products are also produced. Although minimization of hazardous waste is the most desirable solution in any industrial process, and a final goal should be complete elimination of hazardous waste by-products, this is a very difficult task, because of both technical and economical reasons.
Therefore a number of different ways have been developed to dispose of the hazardous wastes in a manner as safe as possible.
Incineration is a major technique used presently for this purpose, having a rather broad applicability. However, incineration is a rather expensive process, and although it can be used very effectively for eliminating organic compounds, hazardous inorganic compounds remain behind. The inorganic compounds are bound in a relatively low leachable structure, but they are still considered as hazardous.
Landfills have been used for a very long time to bury hazardous wastes which have been produced by the industry, the community and the government. The remaining inorganic wastes after the incineration, most of the time, are also buried in landfills.
These wastes are characterized by different degrees of hazard, and thus it is becomes important to isolate the landfill in a manner to avoid leaching of hazardous compounds to the environment outside the landfill. However, this need to isolate the landfills from the environment had not been realized at the beginning of the EPA era, and thus, there are still in existence a number of old landfills which may not have adequate isolation from the environment.
In addition, there are different pieces of land which have been contaminated in the past for one reason or another. Decontamination of the soil contained in those pieces of land, in most occasions, is not feasible from an economic point of view.
Therefore there is a strong need for economical and practical ways to isolate pieces of land having contaminated soil, especially if the contamination is rather light.
Gundle Lining Systems of Houston, Texas have available modular High-Density-Polyethylene barrier systems, using a connector comprising one solid male portion with a flap, and a female portion having a groove, a tube slot and a flap. The two portions, after being connected, form a tight contact by means of seal in the form of a strip extending lengthwise in the groove of the female portion.
SLT North America, Inc, also have available modular High-Density-Polyethylene barrier systems, using a connector comprising a multi-cavity female portion and a multi-T-shaped male portion of complicated configuration.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,464,081 discloses a hazardous waste system for safely containing hazardous waste and monitoring any water or leachates that might exist in the system. The system includes several protective layers for surrounding the hazardous waste, a perimeter wall to minimize any horizontal slippage of the hazardous waste, a cap to protect the hazardous waste from the surface environment, and a support base including an impervious top surface above the ground for providing a barrier between the ground and the hazardous waste.